Who We Once Were
by Nephron
Summary: What would you do? If you were forced to have numerous experiments carried out on your body against your will and have your dignity torn away from you, what would you do?


**Naruto is owned by Masashi Kishimoto.**

**THIS STORY ISN'T FOR THE SQUEAMISH.**

**Forgive me for my absence... I fell ill on Saturday night when I had promised an update on my other SasuSaku fic and then I had to concentrate on finishing my exams, but I'm better now and I have no more exams left! Hurrah! **

**So, I did say I was going to maybe write this and I did, so here you go. I HAVEN'T ABANDONED 'WHERE TEMPESTS RAGE'. Just... gotta make that clear.**

**IT'S IMPORTANT THAT YOU READ THIS BIT.**

**Okay, so this is set in the labs in Orochimaru's hideout or whatever, the only thing is NOBODY IN THIS HAS NINJA POWERS. CHAKRA. That's the word I'm looking for. There is no such thing as shinobi/ninja, whatever. You'll find out later how/why they ended up in here. I'll try and update both my stories together and I bloody well promise to have updated the other fic by tomorrow. Okay? Okay. **

**Thanks.**

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><p>The last thing I remember was being ogled at by a very sketchy looking man. Behind the thin lens of his glasses, I could see the thrill and excitement deep within his wild eyes. The look he was sending me was the epitome of crazed lust, and hadn't I been incapacitated at the time, I would have torn myself from that stretcher and demanded answers. To any naïve bystander it would seem that I was merely having my wounds tended to, but the twinkle in his sparkling orbs said otherwise.<p>

Casting my glance away from the shady man, I let my eyes fall upon blonde tufts of hair poking out of my friend's bloody head. He too had been circled by an array of white coats, like lions would encircle a carcass, leaving no chance of escape, regardless of his physical condition.

"Very nice," the scientist mused, his warm, foul breath dusting over my face before pulling his face away and adjusting his glasses on his thin nose, "take them to the medical block; have them sorted out."

It was a relief to be taken out of this calamitous building to what I thought was 'safety' and bringing this damned story to an end...

… but, _boy_, was I wrong.

**The real journey was only just beginning.**

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><p>"Ugh..." Sasuke groaned quietly as he rubbed his head and shifting about his raven spikes in the process. The wound in his torso had been tended to and now a string of snow white bandaging wrapped around his exposed torso like a spider web with a crimson stain acting like a stuck insect who was about to meet his demise.<p>

"Sasuke! How ya' feeling, buddy?" Naruto questioned with a powerful amount of optimism as he leapt off his bed, despite his own injuries.

"Where are we...?" the avenger growled, still rubbing his head in pain, but before the boy could reply, a voice piped up from the door.

"You will have time to discuss your location later with Lord Orochimaru. However, in the mean time, it's vital that you are tended to. Uchiha will be fine in a few days. The poison in his body will fade and he will be back to normal in no time. You too, Uzumaki, you know. The extent of your injuries obviously aren't as serious as Uchiha's, but that's not to say you won't be feeling some level of... well, weakness," a young girl filled in – a nurse. She was pretty in a strange way, with her dirty blonde hair tied up in a neat ponytail with sections coming down to frame her heart-shaped face. With a smile, she adjusted her glasses from slipping down her button nose and nodded once. "My name is Shiho and I'll be monitoring your progre-"

"H-Hey... You look familiar..." Naruto interrupted with a curious look, making the poor medic blush furiously in which she responded to by bringing up her clipboard to cover her cheeks, just so her thick glasses were peeking over the top.

"S-Subject Uzumaki! You're mistaken! I ask that you show me some respect as your... nurse!" Shiho squeaked as she squeezed her eyes shut behind her frames as if trying to expel all forms of embarrassment and, surprisingly, she succeeded. "Please... Be seated," Shiho said, more of a command than a plea, gesturing towards his bed. The blonde teen couldn't help but obey her out of respect; she was, after all, tending to his wounds. Shiho approached him, another blush dusting her cheeks. "I have to ask you to remove your shirt, Uzumaki." He complied without bother. Meanwhile, Sasuke simply was hunched forward in silence, half curious as to what was going on with Naruto.

"You're not going to go jabbing me with needles, are you?" Naruto piped up, his azure orbs wide with what seemed to be fear. "I really hate those things..."

Shiho smiled in amusement and reached into her lab coat pocket, pulling out a syringe which sent shocks of panic down the boy's spine. "Just one," she muttered, though, her voice was warm and calming and the initial wave of horror within Naruto was quickly washed away. He sighed childishly – a 'tch' coming from the other side of the room – and Shiho gently prodded at his upper arm with her gloved fingers before puncturing the prepared needle into his skin, a hiss in response coming from him as the liquid was pushed into his bloodstream.

"Gyah! Owowowowow...!" Naruto whined, clutching his upper arm after the needle was slowly removed. "I'm holding you to it, doc," he continued, "that better be the last one!" She nodded and smiled sweetly to answer his question, adjust her glasses as she did so. There was just something so... comforting about her. Believable. Trustworthy. Even the Uchiha would admit it.

Shiho giggled lightly as Naruto looked up at her with a pout before turning round to look at the stern-faced Uchiha. With him, she was not so chipper. His cold aura threw her off, instantly warning her of any sudden outbursts. She forced herself to move after a few seconds of analysing him, clutching her clipboard which now had details of the injection scribbled down on it. "And now you, U-"

"My name is Sasuke; not 'Uchiha'," he snapped making her flinch, already knowing fine well what she was about to address him as.

"Oi, asshole! She's _trying_ to help you! Show her some respect!" Came a friendly voice from behind her.

"I'm well aware of what she's _trying _to do, idiot. I want her to call me by my real name and not my clan. I am my own person, so I deserve _my_ name," Sasuke replied monotonously now, though there was a growl on a pair of words for emphasis.

"I- I'm sorry... But I can't address you any more formally than I already am," Shiho squeaked, clearly in distress. "You see..." she trailed off with fear in her voice, "I'm... supposed to call you 'Subject Uchiha' and 'Subject Uzumaki' for yourself," she nodded to Naruto.

"S-Subject...?" The blonde whispered, his eyed wide.

"What are you talking about?" Sasuke hissed, sheer malevolence burning in his eyes towards the young nurse. She noticed that his hand was so tightly clenched into a fist upon his bedsheets and between his knees, that veins were protruding out from his forearm. This was the kind of outbursts she'd been warning herself about. "There's no way you're holding us here against our wills. I won't allow myself to become some guinea pig. Besides, people will notice that we've been gone. People will come looking for us." He had a point. Missing civilians _will_ be searched for.

Immediately, Shiho wished she had kept her mouth shut. She had a knack for that: running her mouth and then regretting it. She never really thought things through, despite her high level of intelligence. She was book-smart, but she had no common sense. "Actually, I shouldn't have said anything! I have no right to tell you of Lord Orochimaru's intentions, nor do I have any right to disobey his orders. My sincerest apologies, Subject Uzumaki and Subject Uchiha, forming a patient-nurse friendship is scandalous and extremely unprofessional of me! Consider any previous formalities to be eradicated." Shiho bowed once and approached the Uchiha again with a new found confidence. "Any and all questions should be directed toward Lord Orochimaru when you meet him. Until then, I suggest that you ensure to let me, as your nurse, do my job or consequences will follow." The two boys just looked at her: one blinking in confusion, the other glaring at her. Her smile faded, her lips now straight and narrow. The nurse pulled the stethoscope from around her neck and fitted it to her ears, holding up the cold chestpiece to the Uchiha. "Remember," she repeated, "let me do my job." He grunted, then, and she swept down to press the icy metal against the parts of his porcelain chest which weren't covered in bandages, receiving a sharp inhale in surprise at the freezing temperature of the instrument. "Hm, normal," Shiho muttered in surprise, making sure to jot down the results.

"H-Hey, doc, can I ask what the injection was that you gave me?" Naruto enquired, somewhat hesitantly now due to her major personality change.

"It was to boost your immune system," she muttered while writing down notes, not even looking at him as she filled him in, "to prepare your body for further tests and physical and mental modifications." And with that, she left, leaving the 16-year-old boys horrified, lost, angry, confused, in pain and anxious. A light beside the door flashed from green to red, signalling that they were locked in.

"This is ridiculous. We have to get out of here at the first opportunity." Sasuke spat, slamming his fist down into the hard mattress. "If they think I am going to submit willingly to them and let them mess around with my body then they have another thing coming."

"Yeah..." Naruto mumbled, his head lowered, his eyes scanning the pristine, white sheets while his arms were draped over his knees. "Together. We can't go one at a time." Sasuke nodded. "Hey... Do you think they're listening to us?"

"Probably."

Naruto looked up at his damaged friend – in more ways than one – and tilted his head a little. "Well... Shouldn't we be keeping quiet about this?"

"Hn," he smirked. "What's the point? They obviously know that we're going to try and escape. Who wouldn't? They're not stupid." He paused and looked directly at the door, eyes narrowed. "Someone's coming."

The still red light flashed to green and in came a truly grotesque, snake-looking man with a younger male standing beside him. His face triggered a few flashbacks in Sasuke's mind, making his eyes shoot wide in horror. "Sakura..." Naruto's head shot up at this, though he had no time to ask questions as the pale, pale, pale man spoke. Nevertheless, Naruto's eyes were still transfixed on the panic-stricken avenger.

"Aaah... Very beautiful subjects, indeed. Wouldn't you agree, Kabuto?" This must be Orochimaru. Now, the blonde's head quickly jerked round to look at the two while Sasuke looked down at his bandaged torso in a flurry, ignoring the sharp jolts of pain at his erratic movements. It didn't amuse the pair of men standing in front of the door. "Stop moving, boy. You'll hurt yourself even more."

"What did you do to her? Where is she?"

"Sasuke... What're you talking about?" Naruto asked quietly, half chuckling in absolute terror.

Orochimaru and Kabuto only laughed. "So I see you've regained a few of your memories, Uchiha. Impressive," the silver-haired male noted, nodding in a sense of admiration for his recovery, his mouth twisting to suit the emotion. He picked up the clipboard which Shiho had left behind from the end of his bed, scribbling away. "Better make sure I record this. 'Quickly... regained... fractions... of his... memory.'" Kabuto mumbled what he wrote, smirking.

"Cut the crap and answer me! If you've hurt her, I swear I'll-"

"What? Hurt us? Don't make me laugh, boy," Orochimaru hissed, walking over to the Uchiha with Kabuto following suit. "You'll see her soon enough, I'm sure. In the mean time, you're going to listen to everything that someone says to you." He paces the room. "Here, you're nothing but lowly specimens. You're for our own use so therefore, everyone is of higher status than you and so you must... treat them as a slave would treat his master! Hahaha! Isn't that right, Kabuto?" Said man nodded in response, still smirking.

"You can't just keep us here..." Naruto growled, his own fists now clenched like Sasuke's. The snake snorted, his arms spread out as if to taunt him.

"Says who? I don't see anyone coming for you. It's been over a week since we took you in and there has been no sign." A week? What? Their questions were immediately answered by the man with glasses as the scepticism was displayed upon their faces.

"You were kept in a sort of 'manual coma' – it's too complicated to explain to you both – until we deemed your purpose here and so that your injuries could heal properly. Also, we ran a few tests on you which we knew you wouldn't comply with when you were conscious, so it was just easier for us." Sasuke's facial features twitched at the thought of unknown examinations being carried out on his body. Who knew what they had done to them? "You'd be better off being ignorant." There was an awkward silence.

"That nurse said that I'd be undergoing 'physical and mental modifications'... Can you tell me about those...?" Kabuto frowned.

"'That nurse' is called 'Nurse Shiho'. She is of a higher importance than you and so you will address her accordingly. Got it?" Sasuke twitched again. He just couldn't listen to these freaks when the thought of Sakura alone in this _asylum _was permanently etched in his mind. He'd feel no relief until he actually saw she was all right.

"Take us to see Sakura."

"Bossy, isn't he!" Orochimaru exclaimed in amusement, his eyebrow raising in pity. "No matter. It'll only make it more fun for us to tear you down." He sighed half heartedly, his long, bony fingers coming up to rub at his own jawline. "You'll do as we say, so sit down and shut up. I think that's enough questions for today. Shiho will be back soon with your 'evening meal'. Heh... See you in tomorrow's first experiment, boys!" He turned to leave, yet Kabuto remained for a few seconds longer, smirking at the two and shaking his head before turning to follow his master.

The light at the door flashed to red again.

"Sasuke... What happened to Sakura...?" came a quiet voice, obviously feeling the melancholy in the air too. The raven turned his head away from the bedsheets to look at the wall, his hand coming up to slowly rub at his face in a concoction of worry, thought and anger.

"I don't know." A pause. "All I remember is her screaming for us. I remember a searing, stabbing pain in my stomach; you laying near to me unconscious and then being _ogled _at by someone while I lay in my own blood." He ran both his hands through his hair before swinging round to clamber out from his bed, clutching his bandaged stomach in absolute agony. Naruto sprang up to help, his arm locking around his back to support him. The Uchiha really did look dire. His skin was paler than usual and dark shadows beneath his eyes were present. He felt thinner; weaker, but Naruto would never say anything of the kind to him. They had to keep morale up.

"Why are you standing up when you need to rest?" he enquired, receiving a light shake of the head in response, as if dismissing his worries. "So... Sakura's in here? Alone?"

"I think so."

"Why?"

"Naruto, I don't know what those freaks are thinking, all right? I don't know. I don't know what they're going to do to us. I don't know where Sakura is. I don't know why people aren't looking for us. I don't know anything." Another awkward silence. "... But what I do know is that we're going to find Sakura if she's here and we're going to get out of here." Naruto smiled.

"I believe you."


End file.
